Principal Software Engineering Manager

Principal Software Engineering Manager

Overview

The Microsoft Windows & Devices (W+D) team is on a journey to deliver iconic experiences across hardware, software, and services that people love and use every day. A core part of the W+D strategy is delivering devices with excellent Fundamentals and delightful AI experiences that blend the power of the Edge with the scale of the cloud.

 

As a Principal Software Engineering Manager in W+D Silicon and Fundamentals Team you will set technical and execution direction along with building and growing a high performing team in the areas of AI, silicon and software. We remain laser-focused on establishing Fundamentals as a delighter for the Copilot+ PC brand. If you love the pursuit of excellence and are inspired by the challenge of driving innovations that impact how the world lives, works and plays, then we invite you to an exciting opportunity to innovate, influence, transform, inspire and grow within the W+D Silicon and Fundamentals Team.

This role carries end‑to‑end ownership across people, technology, and delivery, with an explicit mandate to drive AI‑forward engineering practices at scale to improve productivity, quality, and developer effectiveness.

Responsibilities

This role focuses on leading teams that design, build, validate and operate scalable software solutions in the areas of AI, silicon and software with laser-focus on establishing great Fundamentals. As a Principal Software Engineering Manager, focuses on people leadership, technical direction, and delivery outcomes across teams.

In this role, you are expected to:

• Lead, coach, and support a team of Software Engineers by providing clear expectations, regular feedback, and career guidance through one-on-one connections, mentoring, and performance discussions.
• Set and align technical direction and execution plans by partnering with Product Managers and cross-functional stakeholders to translate customer needs and business priorities into engineering plans.
• Support operational excellence and delivery consistency by reinforcing engineering fundamentals, planning practices, and coordinated response to incidents and live-site issues.

• Leverage customer feedback, telemetry, and product usage data to identify improvement opportunities, prioritize investments, and guide teams toward long-term Windows Fundamentals enhancements.

• Establish and reinforce engineering practices for design reviews, code reviews, testing, and continuous integration to support secure, maintainable, and scalable solutions.
• Provide technical guidance and escalation support by working with engineers on complex diagnostics using debugging tools, performance analysis, and code-level investigation, and representing the team in cross-organization discussions.
• Foster a customer-focused and inclusive team environment where engineers understand customer impact, collaborate across teams, and take shared ownership of outcomes that matter to customers.

AI‑Forward Engineering

• Champion AI‑assisted and agentic engineering workflows across the org; set standards and expectations so teams use AI to move faster without compromising security or quality.
• Establish guardrails and best practices for responsible use of AI tools—ensuring correctness, security, privacy, and compliance.
• Encourage teams to use AI to:
• Accelerate root‑cause analysis and debugging
• Improve test coverage and validation
• Reduce toil through automation and repeatable workflows
• Partner with AI‑forward initiatives across Windows to scale learnings, patterns, and reusable assets.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related technical field AND 12+ years in AI/ML software or systems engineering
  • 4+ years of people management experience, including hiring and developing engineering teams
  • Act as the primary bridge between model development teams, software API engineers, and Microsoft ecosystem stakeholders to define feature acceptance thresholds and validation gating.
  • Lead the design and delivery of internal tools that automate the measurement of accuracy degradation (e.g., drift in quantized INT4/INT8 models) and API-level performance overheads.
  • Align engineering metrics with the Windows AI Foundry, DirectML, and ONNX Runtime specifications to ensure flawless execution providers.
  • Establish regression tracking systems to evaluate how model updates alter API response latencies, memory footprint, and user-experience quality across Windows PC form factors.
  • Strong technical background in systems, platform, on-device AI experiences with the ability to guide architecture and technical decisions.
  • Strong familiarity with the Windows ML architecture, DirectML, and implementing Execution Providers (EPs) within ONNX Runtime
  • Proven track record of working side-by-side with model training/fine-tuning teams and application-layer software engineers
  • Familiarity with Windows architecture, OS fundamentals, and On Device AI concepts.
  • Familiarity with scripting or automation to support operational efficiency and repeatable processes.

 

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Additional or preferred qualifications

Other Requirements: Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter. 

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

Experience Level

Senior Level